The column by the imprisoned US soldier, published in Sunday’s New York Times, is directed at exposing the role of government secrecy and control of the media in foisting onto the American public a war of aggression launched on the basis of lies.

Breaking the wall of secrecy and misinformation maintained by the government and the media provoked the wrath of the US ruling establishment. The soldier and former intelligence analyst is now serving a 35-year prison term. In April, an army general rejected a motion for clemency.

Manning examines the US reaction to the 2010 election of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who had been installed by the US occupation four years earlier. The American press, the imprisoned soldier recalls, “was flooded with stories declaring the elections a success,” aimed at creating the image of the US war having “succeeded in creating a stable and democratic Iraq.”

Manning exposes the direct complicity of the US military in these crimes, reporting that he informed the US officer in command of eastern Baghdad that 15 individuals arrested for publishing a critique of Maliki’s government “had absolutely no ties to terrorism.” The commander responded that “he didn’t need this information; instead, I should assist the federal police in locating more ‘anti-Iraqi’ print shops.”

“I was shocked by our military’s complicity in the corruption of that election. Yet these deeply troubling details flew under the American media’s radar,” he writes.

This account gives the lie to the US media chorus that the present debacle in Iraq is “all Maliki’s fault.”

Manning attributes the sharp divergence between the developments in Iraq and the media’s portrayal of them in part to the Pentagon’s censorship of coverage of the war through the system of “embedded” journalists. Reporters who had good relations with the military and provided favorable coverage got access, while those who exposed scandals, crimes and lies faced blacklisting, he writes.

However, the process of “embedding” began well before Bush ordered “shock and awe” to be unleashed on Baghdad, and included not just war correspondents, but the top columnists, editors and publishers of the major newspapers and other media outlets.

People like Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. and Bill Keller, who in 2003 rose from senior writer and leading war advocate to Times executive editor, lent themselves and their newspapers unreservedly to a massive campaign to pressure the American public to support a war of aggression against Iraq. They decided to parrot the government’s lies about Iraqi “weapons of mass destruction” and ties between Baghdad and Al Qaeda—both non-existent—and to eschew any critical investigation of the Bush administration’s war propaganda. On the contrary, through the sinister efforts of the Times and its correspondent Judith Miller, they embellished upon this propaganda, piling on their own lies.

Now, as the full extent of the debacle created by the wanton destruction of Iraqi society is revealed, those who served as media propagandists for the war are circling the wagons, looking to protect their own backsides. Columnists like the Times’ Thomas Friedman—who more than a decade ago wrote that he had “no problem with a war for oil”—and Nicholas Kristof have published pieces insisting that Maliki is solely to blame for Iraq’s disintegration, and the US had nothing to do with it.

They were followed Monday by a particularly foul column by Times columnist Roger Cohen entitled “Take Mosul back,” calling for US intervention to “drive back the fanatics of the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).”

He goes on: “There was no Al Qaeda in Saddam’s Iraq. The United States birthed it through the invasion.” Thus, another lie was used to justify the war, whose catastrophic consequences include the strengthening of extreme Islamist and sectarian tendencies in Iraq and throughout the region.

In his piece, Cohen demands that the Obama administration unleash “targeted military force” against the “fanatics” of ISIS. But he enthusiastically supported Washington’s use of these same “fanatics” in wars for regime-change first in Libya and then Syria. He waves aside any questions about the logic of such policies: “A logical approach in the Middle East is seldom a feasible approach.” The only “logic” is the use of whatever instrument is at hand to assert US hegemony and plunder the region’s resources.

“The blame game misses the point,” Cohen repeats. Both Iraq and Syria were “ripe for dismemberment” before “America’s hapless intervention.”

Whom is he kidding? The US intervention was anything but “hapless,” employing all of the firepower at the Pentagon’s command in a campaign that saw some 1,700 bombing sorties—including 504 using cruise missiles—in the space of three days.

One might just as well describe 1939 Europe as “ripe for dismemberment” and Hitler’s blitzkrieg as “hapless,” or dismiss the Nuremberg tribunals as a futile exercise in “the blame game.”

The reality is that real apportioning of blame has yet to take place. That requires that those responsible for planning and executing the war of aggression against Iraq—from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Powell to the top military commanders—be placed on trial as war criminals.

At Nuremberg, it bears recalling, standing in the dock—and ultimately on the gallows—with the surviving leaders of the Third Reich was Julius Streicher, the editor of the vile, anti-Semitic weekly Der Stürmer and later the daily Fränkische Tageszeitung. While the tribunal found that Streicher had no direct part in formulating war policy, he nonetheless played a vital role in poisoning the consciousness of the German people. Without Streicher’s propaganda efforts, the prosecution argued, the German generals “would have had no one to follow orders.”

In any genuine accounting for the crimes of the Iraq war, Cohen, Friedman, Keller and those like them, who enthusiastically served the Pentagon’s propaganda machine, would have to similarly be tried for their criminal promotion of aggressive war.

…

Under conditions in which US imperialism is planning a new military intervention in Iraq, while preparing far more terrible wars across the planet, the unrelenting struggle against the lies of the media becomes all the more urgent in developing a struggle against militarism and war.

America is beautiful but it’s got a lot of ugly people
I heard one of them this morning on the radio
He interrupted the pop music programming
To tell us what he thought we needed to know
He said America is an English-speaking country
And that Coke commercial was just all wrong
You can’t interrupt an all-American football game
To have little brown girls sing an all-American song

He said America is beautiful but it’s only got one language
The one we inherited from the King
Although the king himself spoke German and the French helped us overthrow him
But I still don’t want to hear those girls sing
He said it and I wondered if it reminded him
Of his grandparents who were probably refugeesFrom Finland or Italy or Lithuania
Or perhaps from Belarus or Germany

Or perhaps they came from Ireland where they fought for generations
To try to speak the language of their birth
And now their red-faced son is shouting English is the language
In this little stolen corner of the Earth
Not Navajo or Lakota, not Tagalog or Spanish
But the language of those who came out on top
Not the language of the conquered or the ones who were here first
But the language of the ones who run the shop

America is beautiful, it would be silly to deny it
If you’ve seen the forests or the mountains capped with snow
But as I left my Japanese wife to drive to the French school
With a carpool full of gorgeous kids in tow
Who all sang along to Katy Perry and then listened to this bigot
Tell us this is an English-speaking nation
I don’t know what the kids thought but I said this guy’s a fascist
And we all agreed to change the station.

A song for Clear Channel and independent artists around the world, but especially in that most oppressive of media environments, the U$A.

Lyrics:

It happened again last night, it happens every time I play
When the gig is over someone has to say
A question that appears to be on everybody’s brains
As they’re driving down the highway in the commuter lanes
It sure is not just me, it’s the 99%
Of artists who are wondering about the thousands they just spent
On a CD that will never make it on the air
Now all of us are grownups here, we know life isn’t fair
But the answer to the question is one I’d also like to know
Why don’t they play you on the radio?

Perhaps my songs are too cerebral, they don’t make you dance
My melodies are boring, there’s no Spandex in my pants
Maybe it’s because I don’t use a drum machine
Maybe I’m too red or maybe I’m too green
Maybe folks just don’t want to hear it, they don’t want to analyze
Anything more complex than the space between your thighs
Maybe I should wear more glitter, go to parties in an egg
Perhaps I need to go electric or show a bit more leg
But it’s something I must wonder at the end of every show
Why don’t they play you on the radio?

I’m sure there’s an exception to each and every rule
But perhaps I’m too political, and not a useful tool
To keep the music in the background and the commercials in the fore
To keep the shoppers shopping, not protesting the war
To keep the lemmings humming the same three hundred songs
The songs they play throughout the year, each night and all day long
Maybe I just don’t make the grade to be one of the chosen few
Perhaps there was a sign somewhere and I just missed the cue
Or I need to change my name to Bruce or Silvio
Why don’t they play you on the radio?

It could be I just don’t have the talent that’s involved
I’m lacking the commitment, I’m insufficiently resolved
Or maybe there just aren’t a million people who might buy
More records made by some whiny leftwing guy
Or maybe they would, but I’m just out of luck
Because I don’t have a label that can spend a million bucks
Because Sony and Clear Channel have taken over every thing
And you’ve got to pay the piper if you want to make the piper sing
And it’s the king who tells the piper where to go
Why don’t they play you on the radio?

A profile of David Rovics, one of the most progressive singer-songwriters in the US, who’ll be touring these islands with songs of ‘rage and love’ in a few weeks’ time

David Rovics, indie musical activist, makes his living writing and performing what he calls “songs of social significance” – a line that’s truthful and alliterative but which in no way encapsulates the insight, rage and occasional whimsy of the artist’s output.

Rovics produces some of the best music available today but as he notes in his song Why Don’t They Play You On the Radio? he’s “too red or maybe I’m too green” to make it onto the mainstream airwaves.

He’s keen that his music reaches as wide an audience as possible and that’s why he supports file sharing of his work.

“Feel free to download these songs,” he says on his website. “Use them for whatever purpose. Send them to friends, burn them, copy them, play them on the radio, on the internet, wherever.

“Music is the Commons. Ignore the corporate music industry shills who tell you otherwise.”

His songs have an honest, folky sound and his lyrics are far from meek.

In some, there’s a contrast between the harsh words and his calm voice which highlights the difference between the world as it is and the world as it should be.

Concern for the welfare of people and anger at their oppressors come through loud and clear in most of his songs.

“I think inevitably this kind of rage is naturally inextricably intertwined with love,” he says.

Rovics comes from a family of classical musicians but was drawn to populist themes early on.

“I would say that the underlying root cause of pretty much most of the things that I write about can be boiled down to in a really broad way to the conflict between the haves and the have-nots,” he explains.

Rovics expects great things from Morello’s new band Street Sweeper Social Club. He believes their great sound and Tom Morello’s name will give them the rare opportunity to successfully work as leftists in the corporate music environment.

He does a fantastic job of portraying much of what’s wrong with our world. But if injustice is the disease, what’s the remedy?

Legendary political folk singer-songwriter David Rovics will perform a Morning Star fundraiser gig at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds this summer.

The musician from Portland, Oregan, will headline the event in Queens Road on Sunday June 9, with support from folk-inspired songwriter Duncan Evans and guest speakers Aslef vice-president Tosh McDonald and Morning Star editor Richard Bagley.

True story first told to me by Katie Knight from the Colombia Support Network in Montana. Something like half of the union organizers that are killed in the world each year are Colombian. Colombia is also the biggest recipient of military aid in the hemisphere. This, of course, is a coincidence.

———–

Coca-Cola came to Colombia
Seeking lower wages
They got just what they came for
But as we turn the pages
We find the workers didn’t like the sound
Of their children’s hungry cries
So they said we’ll join the union
And they began to organize

So Coke called up a terrorist group
Called the AUC
They said “we’ve got some problems
At the factory”
So these thugs went to the plant
Killed two union men
Told the rest, “you leave the union
Or we’ll be back again”

Now Coke did not complain
About this dirty deed
Why give workers higher wages
When Coke is all they really need
They phoned the AUC
Said “thanks, without you we’d go broke
And to show our appreciation
Here’s one hundred cases of Coke”

(Chorus)
The baby drinks it in his bottle
When the water ain’t no good
The dog drinks it
But he don’t know if he should
Some folks say
It’s the nectar of the Gods
But Coke is the drink of the Death Squads

Well the workers wouldn’t take
This situation lying down
Some went up to Georgia
Said “look what’s happened to our town
You American workers got downsized
And as for us we just get shot
And those of us who survive
Our teeth begin to rot”

(Chorus)

Well now that’s the situation
What are you gonna do
‘Cause death squads run Colombia
And they’re paid by me and you
We can let Coke run the world
And see what future that will bring
Or we can drink juice and smash the state
Now that’s the real thing

“It’s unacceptable to conclude a trade agreement when the human rights situation remains so dangerous,” said Labour MEP and international trade spokesman David Martin.

This video is called David Martin MEP speaking against an EU-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

“The Colombian government is desperate to show its commitment to protecting human rights defenders and prosecute perpetrators, but we have yet to see serious changes on the ground,” he said.

But the agreement was ratified by the European Parliament despite their efforts and will come into effect after it has been endorsed by each national government.

“I regret that the Parliament gave its consent to this agreement now,” said Mr Martin.

“Our trade relations should never be at the expense of human rights.”

Richard Howitt MEP, who speaks for Labour MEPs on human rights, said: “It’s with a heavy heart that Labour would ever vote against trade agreements, as they help to create economic growth in developing countries.

“We’re usually able to vote with our Socialist Group colleagues in Strasbourg but on this occasion, as Labour MEPs and trade unionists, we felt that we simply could not support a trade agreement with a country that has such an appalling record on trade union rights.”

WASHINGTON — In his major foreign policy speech on Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the “costly gains made by our troops” in Iraq are now eroding due to President Barack Obama’s “abrupt withdrawal.”

That was largely the extent of his comments on a war many historians consider the most disastrous in modern times and the most significant foreign policy legacy of the last Republican president, George W. Bush.

“Iraq is relevant in all sorts of ways,” said Peter Van Buren, a former State Department officer who wrote a satirical book blowing the whistle on Iraqi reconstruction efforts. “The first way of course is that those who don’t follow history are doomed to repeat it.”

Bill Moyers and Michael Winship, Moyers & Company: The 2000th member of the American military recently died in Afghanistan. There are two more presidential debates, and the question that needs to be posed to Romney and Obama is: “Why are we killing the kids that don’t need to die?” See here.

Don’t Ask and Don’t Tell: Six Critical Foreign Policy Questions That Won’t Be Raised in the Presidential Debates: here.

Dina Rasor, Truthout: Mitt Romney hopes to raise the defense budget by $2 trillion in order to purchase more Cold War-style weapons that have no relevance to our modern security threats: here.

Richard D. Wolff, Truthout: Obama and most Democrats are so dependent on contributions and support from business and the rich that they dare not discuss, let alone implement, the kinds of policies Roosevelt employed the last time US capitalism crashed: here.